An electric compressor mounted on vehicles or the like is provided with an airtight terminal section having connector terminals at which an electric current output from an inverter is input through lead pins (current-carrying part) of a hermetic plate to a motor winding. In such a case, the connector terminals are generally fixed to the hermetic plate with a cluster housing which houses a plurality of connector terminals.
The airtight terminal section is designed to be inside a compressor housing (sealed container) to form a compact electric compressor. When refrigerant as a fluid to be compressed is flowing in the compressor housing, a pressure difference might be generated between the inside and outside of the airtight terminal if the airtight terminal section is completely sealed and closed off to prevent liquid refrigerant from flowing in the airtight terminal section. Therefore, there have been some attempts to provide through holes to allow the liquid refrigerant to flow both inside and outside the airtight terminal section.
However, such through holes connecting the sealed container and the airtight terminal section in the compressor might allow the liquid refrigerant to enter the airtight terminal section through the through holes, so that the sealed container tends to have insufficient insulation inside. To prevent such insufficient insulation, Patent document 1 discloses an insulation distance extension section is provided to ensure the insulation property.